Category: Life

2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 1 husband – life isn’t perfect, but it is what we make it

Big Boy Bed

Published by dee on June 25, 2007

I mentioned last week that I wanted to get Zach a “big boy bed.” I’ve been thinking about it for a while and decided that we were both ready for him to move up. Once I get an idea like that in my head, I’m just not satisfied until it is done.

I spent days searching online stores, checking craigslist ads, and debating whether we could afford it or not. I convinced my dad to pitch in a little bit towards the bed as Zach’s birthday present. I had a really nice looking oak day bed picked out that I thought would be perfect for Zach’s room. Then the car fiasco happened. While I was dealing with that, the day bed apparently sold and I missed out on it. At least that’s what I think happened since the guy selling it quit answering my calls.

After I picked Zach up Friday night, his day care provider called and told me that there were some bunk beds for sale at a garage sale down the street from her. I took a chance that the sale would still be open and drove down there while Zach and Hubby were eating dinner. They were still there and I bought them on the spot. They are very sturdy and are pretty much exactly what I wanted but had ruled out due to cost.

Hubby and I spent the rest of the evening transporting the beds, taking them apart, moving them to Zach’s room, and then putting them back together (damn my skinny hallway!). Then we had to start searching for some cheap mattresses. Saturday morning we checked around and ended up buying some really cheap, thin mattresses for $50 a pop. They won’t work long-term, but we can always buy better ones after the potty training is done. For now, they are keeping Zach happy.

We had the bed up and ready to sleep in by nap time Saturday and Zach could not have been more thrilled. He slept solidly in his new big boy bed the last two nights. I’m sure the newness will wear off eventually, but for now he is loving his big boy bed.

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Who Needs Movies and Concerts When You Have This At Home?

Published by dee on June 23, 2007

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One of Those Days

Published by dee on June 21, 2007

I got up this morning knowing it was going to be a long day. There was a lot of packing and furniture moving to be done at the office, plus we had plans to make a run up to my sister’s house after work to pick up some things and have dinner.

Zach was in a pretty good mood this morning and we actually made it out the door on time (our new morning schedule is working out nicely). On the way to day care I thought I heard the car making a strange sound, so I turned the radio down a bit so I could hear it better. There was a bit of a squeal when I hit the brakes. I’ve been wanting to get them checked for a while now, but it is one of those things that just gets pushed to the back of my mind easily. After I dropped Zach off, I turned the radio off and listened to my car. The sounds I heard were not pleasant. It was getting worse. I called Hubby and told him that I needed to get the car in right away to have the brakes checked.

I got to the office, made a few more phone calls, and then met my mom down at the auto shop. With a sick feeling in my stomach because I just knew this was going to cost way more than we have, I rode back to work with my mom.

I kept myself busy packing up my office. Everything is now packed with the exception of my laptop and phone. I have an empty desk and chair for one more day, and then I’ll be crammed into my mom’s office or wherever I can manage to find the space to work. I did at least manage to keep a small rolling table that I’ll be able to set my laptop on to work. The next few weeks should be interesting to say the least.

A little while later, the shop guy called me back to tell me the fabulous news. All four brakes needed done. The front brakes needed new pads and the rotors smoothed. The rear breaks needed pads and completely new rotors. And the best part? All of that was going to cost me a grand total of $659. Um, that would be $659 that I absolutely do not have. Great.

There really was no other option than to have the work done. I certainly wasn’t driving the car in that condition considering the precious cargo that I tote around every day. While I was dying inside a little, I told the guy to go ahead and do the work.

After an exhausting afternoon of packing, packing, and more packing, I went to pick up my car. With taxes and the addition of a very needed oil change, the final bill came up to more than $700. It is now sitting on a credit card and I have no idea how I’m going to pay for it. I seriously think it is time to start buying lottery tickets. But hey, at least I don’t have to worry about my brakes going out for a while!

After that I picked Zach up and we headed up to my sister’s house. We had a nice dinner with her and the kids, then loaded up the truck and headed home. We drove the Suburban up there because we needed to bring some folding tables back with us. Since the ghettoburban has no air conditioning, we were riding with the windows down. I had a couple of pictures that my sister asked me to scan sitting on the console. The air blowing in the windows was moving them around a bit, so I grabbed them and decided to hold onto them. All of a sudden, a big gust of wind blew through the ghettoburban and ripped one of the pictures out of my hand and straight out the window. I. LOST. ONE. OF. THE. PICTURES. These weren’t just any pictures. They were portraits. The one that blew out the window was of my sister’s three boys all together. I am the world’s worst sister and aunt.

I immediately called my sister to tell her what had happened. I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that point. I felt so terrible about losing the picture. There was really no point in trying to backtrack and find it. We were going down the highway at probably 70 mph when it flew out the window. It was just gone. She didn’t seem nearly as upset about it as I was. I even offered to try to see if the photographer could do a reprint, but she said not to worry about it. I don’t think I would have taken it as well if I had been on the other end.

Now I’m just ready to go to bed and get this day over with. I hope that tomorrow is a much better day because I’m not ready for another one like this.

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3-in-1

Published by dee on June 19, 2007

Last Friday I had grand ideas of sitting around in my pj’s relaxing all weekend. Then I started thinking about all of the things I needed to do, like grocery shopping so we could actually eat, and figuring out where exactly I was going to have Zach’s birthday party since I still hadn’t reserved the park shelter I wanted. Suddenly, my lazy weekend turned into a very busy one.

I ended up spending Friday evening and much of Saturday running errands. Saturday afternoon we went over to my mom’s to help her set up one of those 12 foot round pop up pools in her back yard. Since we no longer have her apartment complex pool to invade, we figured we needed something for the kiddos to splash around in this summer.

While the pool was filling up, we took the men of the family (hubby, my brother, and my brother-in-law) out for a Father’s Day dinner. Once our bellies were sufficiently full, we headed back to the house to watch a movie and monitor the water level of the pool. I think it was around 11:00 by the time we ended up leaving.

We spent most of Sunday at my dad’s house. Zach ended up taking an extra late nap and then refused to go to bed. He was still awake at 11:15 when I finally went to bed and had an extremely crabby morning on Monday. It was a great way to start out the week.

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I am really beginning to feel like my summer is over before it even really begins. There are still two days to go before the "official" first day of summer and we already have plans for the next five weekends in a row. Three of those weekend we’ll be traveling out of town and the other two will be consumed with a certain someone’s birthday party and some family activities.

Besides the traveling and other activities coming up in the next few weeks, it seems that my office space will be turned completely upside down for a while. Beginning Monday, we’ll have a construction crew in here remodeling the office space. When all is said and done it will be really nice, but in the meantime I am going to be a bit displaced. My work space will be wherever I can manage to find a chair and a plug-in for my laptop. If I’m lucky I’ll get to do some work from home where I have an actual desk. It is going to be pretty hard to work in the office when I have no space to spread out. The good news is that I will have a real office (with a door!) when it is all finished.

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I’ve been thinking for a while now about moving Zach into a big bed. He’s doing okay in his toddler bed, but he’s been asking more and more lately to sleep in our big bed, even when we aren’t in it. I don’t mind him sleeping with us really, but Hubby doesn’t like it. That is probably because Hubby ends up with little feet kicking and pushing him all night while I end up with the head end all snuggled up with me. He generally goes to sleep in his own bed, but ends up with us sometime during the night if/when he wakes up.

The alternative to him sleeping with us is that I stay in Zach’s room with him until he falls asleep again. He’ll settle back down in his own bed as long as I stay there with him. If I leave, he stands at the door and screams until I come back. I’m not so fond of this alternative when it’s 3:00 in the morning and I just want to go back to sleep myself. I have ended up falling asleep on his floor on more than one occasion and then waking up hours later with a sore back and neck.

My solution to this problem is to get him a big bed, probably a twin size for now. It would give him more room to wiggle around in, feel more like mom and dad’s bed, and would give me space to lay down next to him for a while if he wakes in the night.

I realize that he’ll probably still want to crawl into bed with us from time to time, but we all might get a little more sleep this way. Now I just have to figure out what style of bed I want and how in the heck I’m going to pay for it!

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No Safe Place

Published by dee on June 15, 2007

Last night Hubby ended up working late so I decided instead of trying to fix dinner and try to judge when he would be home that we would just go out. We headed down to CiCi’s because I’m a sucker for pizza and it is cheap. As we walked in, I noticed a flier on the door for a missing girl. Kara Kopetsky has been missing since May 4th apparently. She went off to school one morning and never came home. Based on the circumstances, it doesn’t sound at all like a run away situation, although that would be more comforting.

Kara’s story is so frightening to me. As a mother, you live to protect your children. You spend years teaching them how to be safe, what to do if a stranger approaches them, not to cross the street without looking, etc., only to see cases like this where a child just disappears. School is the one place where your children should be safe from harm.

During my drive to work this morning, I caught part of a segment discussing Kara’s disappearance. The woman speaking to the dj was a family member, but I can’t say for sure who she was as I didn’t hear the introduction. As I listened to her pleading, I got chills. I realized that this can happen to anyone, and does happen much more than I am willing to acknowledge.

I know that things like this have been going on for centuries, but I have to wonder how things have changed in this new information age. We (myself included) post pictures and intimate details of our lives online (and yes, Kara has a MySpace page). We know there are predators out there looking, but we continue to live our lives as though we are safe from them. At the same time, the internet, along with all of the various news feeds and warning systems, helps to get the word out as soon as a child is missing. The instant transfer of information has surely helped find many abducted kids. I’m not a stats type of person, but I have to wonder which side is more heavily weighted-the number of abductions due to online activity or the number of recoveries due to getting the word out faster. It would be interesting to compare.

Most of all, this really has me thinking about the safety of my own child as he gets older, and any that may follow. Where do you draw the line? How do you let kids have their freedom, yet keep them safe? How do you feel at ease when there really is no safe place? How do you send them off to school or day care when you hear about children disappearing from those places? How do you parent in a world where there really are no sure answers?

I pray for Kara’s family and friends and for her safety. I hope that she is safe and returns home soon without harm. Most of all, I pray that she isn’t found like Kelsey Smith was.

Technorati Tags: Kara Kopetsky, Kelsey Smith, abduction, missing, teen, kansas city, parenting, safety

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Pardon Me While I Get Geeky

Published by dee on June 14, 2007

To many of you, these things will mean absolutely nothing, so if you aren’t geek inclined like myself then just move along. For the rest of you (who understand the joy of geekiness), here are some things that I’m a little excited about right now.

Movable Type 4.0 Beta – I use Movable Type to power this site and was just about ready to switch it over to WordPress because it is just easier to use. When the new MT was announced I wasn’t quite sure whether to go forward with the change or hold off. After logging in to a demo of MT 4 today, I think I might wait it out a bit. I’m going to wait until the beta period is over and then upgrade before I make a final decision. What I’ve seen of MT 4 so far looks pretty damn good.

I recently downloaded Pidgin, a multi-protocol IM client. I heard about it a while back but never installed it. I’ve tried similar clients before and have never found one I liked so I’m going to try it out for a few days. I use several different instant messengers and would love to just have them all in one place. I’m generally logged in to at least 3 of the 4 I use whenever I’m online. This will make it much simpler if it works for me. The only thing I’ve found so far that I don’t like is that it doesn’t tell you when the person on the other end is typing (unless I’m missing a setting somewhere that allows it). Oh, feel free to pass along your usernames if you want to chat or e-mail me for mine.

Finally, the best new discovery I’ve made this week is the new version of Safari that works with Windows. I do indeed love my Firefox browser to pieces, but when I’m designing sites it will be a great advantage to be able to see what it looks like in Safari so I can troubleshoot. I would really prefer just to have a Mac so I can know for sure what everyone is seeing, but since that isn’t a possibility I’ll just have to settle for the Windows-based Safari browser. It is quite pretty and very fast-loading from what I’ve seen so far.

Technorati Tags: Movable Type 4.0 Beta, Pidgin, Safari, Firefox, Windows

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